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View Full Version : Urban travel at it's finest- Feats, skills [PEACH]



Amridell
2013-08-25, 01:27 AM
So most of the things made here are classes or races or monsters. This is a bit different. It's just a few feats. But mostly, it's an idea. Instead of the skill monkey rogue just being a lock pick with a sword arm, he can be an agile combatant with a penchant for acrobatics. Mirror's edge if Faith had a rapier.

DM's obligations to the system-

1- Be able to handle what happens when you give a player almost limitless ways to abuse the environment. Your players can and will use this system to completely screw up placement. A squad of orcs with crossbows atop a ledge are now poorly protected, especially if the player doing this is a pathfinder monk. Be careful, and plan contingencies.

2- Let players use it. A feat or a spell is no fun if you nerf it to the ground, so make sure a player using it sees use of it.

3- Have fun with it. Design specific challenges where wall running and maneuvering are parts of it. Give monsters the abilities to run up and over walls, let players respond creatively.

The system itself-Part 1-rules modifications:

Jump skill:
The jump skill is a very boring skill. Partially because it just doesn't look fun at all. What's fun about DC 64 for 8 feet? That's right, nothing. Therefore, the first thing is to simply let the players know that jump exists. It never gets any exposure when skills are normally regarded as stupid time wasters that are just used for lock picking and spellcraft. Break that mindset and show off combat skills.

-Long jump:
Long jump now assumes that you're making a 1 foot high jump as well. Long jumping is fairly good for now, but feats will make it better.

-High jump:
DCs are no longer doubled without a running start. Instead, a 10 foot running start adds a +4 circumstance bonus to the jump check. This vastly improves the high jump by letting players use it more effectively.

-Climb:
Slow climbing is for scrubs. Wall climbing, by using your feet to temporarily gain a bonus to a high jump. If you jump up, and make a DC 20 climb check, you gain a +4 bonus to that jump check.
If you use it to, for instance, jump up a wall, kick off of that wall, and then grab something in the opposite direction, you add another +2 to that check. Remember that all of these stack. It is therefore very possible to have a +10 bonus to a vertical jump if you try to go to something opposite of a wall (+4 10 ft run, +4 wall climbing, and +2 from wall ricochet).

-Feats:

--New feats:

Wall running:
Over time, you began to realize that if you ran fast enough, and got your footing, you could run on the walls like a spider for some time.
Prerequisites: Tumble 4 ranks, Jump 4 ranks, Climb 4 ranks, Dex 15+
Benefit: You gain the ability to wall run. Wall running requires a successful jump check and a successful dexterity check. The jump check is how long you can run, equal to the length of a long jump, doubled. A DC 10+(distance/5) dexterity check is required to make sure you don't fall. If you do not clear the wall in one round, you fall regardless. You are treated as charging when you come out of the wall run, and may make an attack if there is anyone threatened by you where you land.

Improved landing:
"You only get hurt when you fall incorrectly"- The late Kinkin, renowned Koblod monk.
Prerequisites: Tumble 6 ranks
Benefit: You gain a +4 bonus on tumble checks made to land, treat the fall as if were twenty feet shorter, and can attack coming out of your landing at a +1 bonus to attack and damage.

Vault:
Throwing yourself can be an effective strategy to keep moving forward.
Prerequisites: Dex 15+, tumble 4 ranks
Benefit: You can choose to vault over a low obstacle (no less than half your height, no more than your height), to gain +10 feet to your speed with a DC 15 tumble check.

Hope that this makes something more interesting, I was designing with the monk in mind. Please give honest criticism to help this idea grow, as I plan to use it on a campaign I'm going to be running soon. Thanks!

Greenish
2013-08-25, 08:43 PM
Wouldn't those work better as skill tricks?